[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 154 (Thursday, November 8, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H7916-H7918]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




APPOINTMENT OF CONFEREES ON H.R. 3061, DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND 
HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 
                                  2002

  Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the 
Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 3061) making appropriations for the 
Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and 
related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2002, and for 
other purposes, with a Senate amendment thereto, disagree to the Senate 
amendment, and agree to the conference asked by the Senate.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Shimkus). Is there objection to the 
request of the gentleman from Ohio?
  There was no objection.


                 Motion to Instruct Offered by Mr. Obey

  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I offer a motion to instruct conferees.
  The Clerk read as follows:

       Mr. Obey moves that the managers on the part of the House 
     at the conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses 
     on the bill, H.R. 3061, be instructed to insist on the House 
     position to provide no less than a total of $51,749,765,000 
     for the Department of Education.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 7, rule XXII, the 
gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. 
Regula) each will control 30 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey).
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, this motion is very straightforward. It says the 
conferees should bring back a conference report for the Labor-HHS 
appropriations conference that includes House-passed levels for 
education.
  As I think we all know, the President's budget provided for a 5.6 
percent increase in education funding over the previous year. That 
contrasted to an average of a 13 percent increase in each of the 
previous 5 years. The bill that the House passed contained a 17 percent 
increase over last year, and that passed by an overwhelming bipartisan 
vote of 373 to 43.
  The bill passed by the other body, in contrast, does not provide the 
funding levels we need for education. It falls $525 million short of 
the House level. The House bill provides $7.7 billion for special 
education part b State grants, which is $375 million more than the 
Senate. The House bill provides $10.5 billion for title I grants, $300 
million more than the Senate. For teacher-quality activities, the House 
bill is $135 million over the Senate. The House bill for bilingual 
education provides $700 million, which is $100 million more than the 
Senate. It has a variety of other programs in the education area but 
the House provides more adequate support than does the Senate bill, in 
my view.
  Now, we all know that money alone does not produce quality education, 
but one cannot provide quality education without money. I think our 
bill, the bill that passed the House, is a very strong effort to do 
that.
  Also we have to keep the door open for higher education to families 
from all across the country. The problem we face is that we provided a 
major increase for Pell Grants in the bill that passed the House; but 
we are now told that because of the deteriorating economy, with more 
students enrolled in college than expected and the like, that all of 
the increase that the House provided will be needed just to maintain 
the current maximum grant level of $3,750 per student. In other words, 
we will have to come up with even more money for Pell Grants, or 
college students will get no increase at all for their grant award for 
this year.
  So this motion simply instructs the conferees on this bill to provide 
no less than the level of resources for education that the House has 
already agreed to. I would urge adoption of the motion.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  (Mr. REGULA asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) has 
outlined a number of the good features of this bill. I totally agree 
with the motion to instruct. I think it reflects H.R. 1, which passed 
this body overwhelmingly. The numbers track.
  It also reflects the President's priorities. The Office of Management 
and Budget is happy with the bill that we have. They feel that it is a 
very fiscally responsible bill.
  It also has a number of features, and the gentleman from Wisconsin 
(Mr. Obey) has touched on them, but a couple I might mention include 
the Reading First Program. It is a new program that the President has 
supported strongly with $900-plus million. Reading is vital, as we all 
recognize; and also it has additional funding for the programs to 
improve and provide assistance and help teachers to enable them to 
better serve the students.

                              {time}  1115

  I think all of us agree that teacher quality is the heart and soul of 
a good school system. I am pleased that we do have language in here to 
support things like the Troops-to-Teachers, a relatively new program, 
but one that offers great promise in meeting the teacher shortage, and 
also great promise in attracting retirees from the military who have a 
lot to offer. They have the world travel, they have experience in 
managing people, and I think tracking these people at their retirement 
point to participate in our education program and to serve as teachers 
is a great concept.
  I might say we added a number of millions of dollars to this program 
at the request of the military because what they are going to do is 
beef up their program in the military of talking to their retirees 
about participating in the Troops-to-Teachers, and also to providing 
some financial help to these individuals while they are finishing out 
their military career to go to a college or university, and get their 
necessary programs to qualify them under State requirements to serve in 
the classroom.
  We also beef up the Teach for America program, again, one that 
attracts people, something similar to the programs that get young 
people to go into areas that are underprivileged and

[[Page H7917]]

teach for a couple of years in return for getting some assistance.
  I have talked to some of these individuals and they are really 
excited about what they can do to help students, to be an inspiration, 
to provide role models for students in underprivileged areas. Again, a 
very successful program. We provide additional funding for that.
  TRIO. TRIO is designed to go into the schools and have individuals 
from colleges, universities, talk to students and try to persuade them, 
inspire them, catch their interest in going on to higher education. It 
is a successful program, and we have added $70 million to that. We have 
given more money for rural education and the mentoring programs.
  One of the successes is where senior citizens or college students or 
just people in a community go into a school and mentor students, 
actually work with them on reading programs.
  In my district, I have a hospital that brought a bus. They actually 
bused their employees out and gave them a break to do this. They would 
go to a school and work with students who are having difficulty with 
reading.
  We hear a lot about the importance of science and math. We all agree 
that those are important, but before one can do science and math 
education, one has to be able to read. Reading is basic. Reading is 
fundamental. We, in this bill, have tried to identify programs that 
will help students to be successful in learning to read, and in turn, 
then they can more effectively participate in others.
  Really, this is what is the heart and soul of ``no child left 
behind.'' ``No child left behind'' means no child that cannot read, 
because if they cannot, they have a real problem.
  There are a lot of other good features in the bill. That was 
evidenced by the strong vote we had in the House. It was a bipartisan 
bill. The gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) and I worked very closely 
together, and the members of our subcommittee likewise worked with us 
to get a bipartisan bill. It is strongly endorsed by the 
administration, the Office of Management and Budget.
  What the motion of the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) is saying 
is, education is number one. Polls tell us over and over again that 
education is number one with the people of this Nation. Therefore, the 
bill reflects that. I think this is a very proper motion because the 
bill in the other body has a smaller amount for education, and we feel 
it is important that we go to the conference with a vote of affirmation 
from the Members of this House saying, in effect, that they, too, agree 
that education is a number one priority in getting a conference report.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. REGULA. I yield to the gentleman from Florida.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding 
to me.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like our colleagues to know that the education 
number in this bill, which is a very substantial number, is a solid 
number. The gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) and the gentleman from 
Ohio (Mr. Regula) and I had begun to work on this issue in the spring 
actually, and in working with our counterparts in the Senate, we came 
to this number.
  So I think we have all made this commitment to the strong educational 
part of this bill, and I agree with the chairman of the subcommittee 
that this motion certainly reflects the viewpoint that we had 
established early on.
  Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, I might add that the chairman of the full 
committee, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young), and the gentleman 
from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) in the minority on the full committee gave us 
a very good allocation. That is one of the things that made it possible 
to have such a quality bill and to meet the needs as we see them.
  They have also been very helpful in giving strong support to this so 
that we have a bipartisan consensus within the Congress. I think it is 
a great team effort on the part of both sides of the aisle, and I would 
strongly urge Members to endorse this fact that education is number 
one, and that we go to conference with that concept.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Roemer).
  (Mr. Roemer asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. ROEMER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in very, very strong support of this 
motion. This bill, worked out in a bipartisan way by the gentleman from 
Ohio (Mr. Regula) and the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), has 
about $525 million more for education, educating our children in new 
and innovative ways.
  I think this is a very strong instruction, a motion that we need to 
support on the House side.
  At a time in the Midwest, Mr. Speaker, when our economies are not 
bringing in as much money, at a time when some of our State budgets are 
being cut by $800 million, $1 billion, and more, at a time in the 
Midwest when steel mills are being closed, when tax bases are 
shrinking, when we have lost 165,000 manufacturing jobs for many in the 
Midwest, we need this money for new ideas to educate our children in 
new ways.
  In Title I we have a 20 percent increase for educating the poorest of 
the poor children in this bill; for reading and literacy programs, we 
have new ways of educating and teaching reading to our children.
  We have, as the chairman mentioned, a new program that ramps up the 
Troops-to-Teachers program called Transition to Teaching, bringing 
people from the private sector in engineering, technology, math, and 
science, from Main Street into our classrooms. This is not throwing 
money at old ideas, this is new money attached to new ideas. At a bare 
minimum, this $525 million over the Senate bill is what we should 
indeed support.
  Mr. Speaker, I would also say that I hope that the other body would 
include in their stimulus package money for education, given what our 
States are going through in this tough time with the economy.
  So again, Mr. Speaker, I encourage Republicans and Democrats to 
support this motion. I again applaud the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. 
Obey) and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) and the gentleman from 
Ohio (Mr. Regula) for their hard work.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Andrews).
  (Mr. ANDREWS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, the gentleman from 
Wisconsin, for yielding time to me.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise to thank and congratulate the gentleman from Ohio 
(Mr. Regula), the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young), and the gentleman 
from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) for the outstanding legislative product they 
have put before this body, and to strongly endorse this motion to 
instruct.
  One of the areas that I am most especially pleased to see is the 
substantial increase in special education funding under the Individuals 
with Disabilities in Education Act, the IDEA. In the fiscal year that 
ended September 30, we committed $6.3 billion to help educate students 
with these needs. In the House bill, that number now exceeds $7.7 
billion, an increase of well over 20 percent.
  This is a double victory. It provides much higher quality education 
for children with special needs, and it frees up resources in local 
school districts around the country to do many other things: to help 
reduce class sizes for children who are not in special education, to 
free up money for school construction, for teacher quality, or for tax 
relief.
  We need to do more of this, and we need to do it for the reasons my 
friend, the gentleman from Indiana, just cited: State budgets around 
this Nation are feeling and will profoundly feel the effects of the 
economic slowdown. That will mean substantially lower State resources 
for education. Now more than ever it is important for us to step in and 
help fill that void. This legislation does so.
  As we proceed with the House-Senate conference on the education 
reform bill, we strongly support making major quality upgrades and 
reforms in education, but we only want to do so if the resources are 
there to pay for the needs of children who are identified as having 
trouble.

[[Page H7918]]

  This bill is an example of what we need to do on a permanent and 
ongoing basis to make sure that once we have identified children with 
problems, we give them the tools and the teachers with whom they can 
overcome those problems.
  For the bipartisan leadership on this bill, I extend my thanks and 
appreciation, urge my colleagues to support the resolution.
  Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I do want to make one additional comment. That is that 
thanks to the leadership of the Speaker and the minority leader and the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) and the gentleman from Wisconsin 
(Mr. Obey), I think for the first time the Senate and the House 
subcommittee had an identical allocation. That is going to make it much 
easier in conference because we are working from the same total.
  I commend them for giving us that kind of support, and also for 
increasing the allocation generally, because we will only in conference 
be dealing with priorities, but we will all be working from the same 
total number.
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this motion to 
instruct conferees to accept the higher funding levels for education 
that are included in the House bill. Chairman Regula and Ranking Member 
Obey have shown tremendous leadership on our Subcommittee, and they 
have negotiated a strong bill that reflects the value our country 
places on education.
  We started this budget cycle in a much different place. In order to 
make room for his huge tax cut, President Bush's budget proposed the 
smallest increase for education in 5 years.
  The $2.4 billion increase in the Bush budget included substantial 
increases for reading programs and a modest increase for Pell grants, 
but left only $400 million for all other education programs. This 
proposal left all other elementary, secondary, and higher education 
programs, special education, and vocational education programs with 
less that the level needed just to keep up with inflation.
  Members of both sides of the aisle recognized that this was 
unacceptable, and the bill we negotiated included an increase of $4.7 
billion over the request and $7 billion over last year. These increases 
include an additional $1.7 billion for disadvantaged schools, the 
largest dollar increase for title 1 since its inception of the program, 
a $154 million increase for after school child care, and a $240 million 
increase for bilingual education.
  We can never forget that our strength as a nation is measured both in 
our military might and in the well being of our people. There is no 
more important priority than educating our children and passing our 
knowledge and values to the next generation. I urge my colleagues to 
these funding increases and vote yes on the motion to instruct.
  Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I 
yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Shimkus). Without objection, the 
previous question is ordered on the motion to instruct.
  There was no objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to instruct 
offered by the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey).
  The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that 
the ayes appeared to have it.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further 
proceedings on this question will be postponed.

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